Sammy LaMancuso

PETERSON: We're going to have a 10th anniversary (Stateline) movie premiere (in September 2010). To create the aura, we need to get your car up and going and we'll travel to this event.

LATONE: Will you make me crew chief? If you say yes, in the spring I'm taking charge of it and it's going to happen.

LAMANCUSO: There's no engine in it!

LATONE: The car will have an engine... and I have a body shop that has agreed to do the work on it. I think it's going to be exciting.

PETERSON: The police chief has already agreed to a police escort. We've got this covered.

LAMANCUSO: They better have a fast car, tell them.

As laughter filled the room, LaMancuso and LaTone shook hands, confirming the deal.

Sammy LaMancuso discussed his restored race car with Governor Andrew Cuomo

By August 2010, LaMancuso drove the newly restored, yellow 27L on to the Stateline track where he participated in a match race with Dick Barton, another area racing legend. Not surprisingly, LaMancuso took the checkered flag that day. Six weeks later, he drove his car through downtown Jamestown where he was ultimately greeted by hundreds of people, who had assembled for the premiere of the Stateline documentary at the Robert H. Jackson Center and to support the legacy of one of the track's most popular former drivers.

"What an honor to even hear that word (legacy)," LaMancuso told Peterson during their interview. "I'm glad I had an effect on somebody."

Thanks to the effort of the Stateline Legacy Fund - specifically Peterson, Randy Anderson and Randy Sweeney - the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame and a host of sponsors, LaMancuso's legacy has been preserved, courtesy of a DVD entitled: "Sammy, The Movie."

The 83-minute documentary, produced by PC Projects, includes racing footage; a chronology of the 27L restoration; interviews with LaMancuso, his family, his friends, former drivers and track officials; a conversation between LaMancuso and Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and the Jackson Center reception following LaMancuso's "last lap" in the Dodge Charger in September 2010. A 35-minute "bonus" segment with LaMancuso's old crew completes the video.

"This project is really not about the race car," Anderson said during the film, "and it's not even about Sammy the race car driver. What I've learned being around these guys is this project is really about Sammy LaMancuso the man and how much he's respected and what high esteem he's held in by his friends and family."

As nephew Dr. John LaMancuso put it: "We were blessed to be raised in a family with Uncle Sam in it."